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Talk:Towards a sustainable Olympics 2012
It is the day after the announcement that London will host the 2012 Olympics and sadly the city has been rocked by the tragedy of what appears to have been a series of terrorist attacks. At times like this it helps to focus on the positives and I have been inspired that within 24 hours of the announcement of the venue for the games a discussion has started about how to make these "the greenest Olympics ever." Some of the positives that have begun to emerge in the discussion groups (localsustuk) and web sites that I have read include: "In August 2003, the Mayor launched his Green Compact which identified key achievements that would make the London Games the most environmentally sustainable in history. In the run-up to the Games, construction and other preparation activities will bring new employment opportunities, many of which will be focused in or near the Olympic zone in east London." "Given the will and the direction, these games can have a positive regeneration impact on East London and, with the positive engagement of environmental organisations, be far greener than those before." “The Sydney Games provided the turning point in ensuring that environmental considerations were adopted in the planning, design and holding of the Event. Sustainability is a key plank in the International Olympic movement. The London Olympics will have a considerable economic, social and environmental effect in many different ways, and not just in obvious areas such as the regeneration of the East End of London. The way ahead for us now should be to ensure that we all work together from day one to achieve the greenest Olympics ever.” ---- The Games can and will have enormous benefits for an enormous number of people and by incorporating principles of sustainable development they can even go a long way towards providing a blueprint for a cleaner, greener society although there is already plenty of scope for debate about the extent to which this will actually happen. However we should not lose sight of the fact that the plans for the 2012 Olympics do call for an enormous amount of development and, whether this is described as “sustainable” or not, there will be a major impact in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Add to this the “millions of spectators, thousands of competitors and journalists flying in....” and the extent of the problem starts to become clear. Phil Green has set up this site with the aim that it “could be further developed and used to signpost to whatever anyone else is doing as well as being a space for directly relevant info.” I would like to make a contribution by suggesting the launch of a campaign to make the 2012 Olympics “climate neutral” (I hope that the use of this terms doesn’t breach any copyright – I think that “Carbon Neutral” may be better but then we’ll have to get the Future Forests people on board for that). So can we start the Climate Neutral Olympics Campaign on these pages and is anyone else already doing something similar? I am open to people who wish to contact me directly about this and think that this discussion forum is an excellent way for these ideas to progress. Graham Randles Social Entrepreneur grahamrandles (at) yahoo.co.uk (please remember to adjust (at) as appropriate) Avoiding sustainable rhetoric! Commitment has to be matched with clearly defined means to attain those commitments. Of course the Olympics are years away but so are Britain's practical renewable energy policies. Change building regs and require that all new build incorporates renewables and we will start to make a difference. Everything will be better tomorrow just doesn't work because tomorrow is always a day away, never today. Listen to the comments raised by those local to the site and go and see for yourself: what is now happening has nothing to do with developing sustainable communities Low or zero emission vehicles - where zero emission, at the point of use or where the power is generated? Fuel cell powered vehicles are only low or zero emission if they are entirely fuelled by renewable sources. Low carbon design? Lower, perhaps, but don't forget embodied energy, vehicles have to be manufactured and that takes energy. I'm being pernickety because, in sustainable development, phrases are so often loosely used without the user questioning their meaning and without the hearer questioning their truth. Sustainability is not just about being 'green', its about a whole package of practices that allow communities to thrive without limiting the ability of others to similarly thrive, both now and in the future. Earlier this year I started a series of London sustainability walks; they have been on hold for a few weeks but will be starting again shortly. We walk through communities old and new and observe reality rather than listen to hype. Thus far, in east and south east London, we have got it alarmingly wrong and the only sustainable element has been developers' profits. Promises that the Olympic development will be different fail to convince and will continue to do so whilst the Lea's ecology is about to be destroyed, employment is being lost and valuable green space is scheduled to be converted into car parking. This is the type of sustainable rhetoric that is best used to grow roses. Of course we have to make the best of it but to do so we must observe with critical clarity, refuse to accept vague and unsubstantiated policies and press hard for sustainability to be really built in. A project of this size requires even more careful examination and it requires those of us committed to rather more than rhetoric to press and press again for standards that are truly sustainable and for acceptable methods of implementation. Roy Tindle, Connected Development (copied with permission from the UK Local Sustainability email list (localsustuk) discussion list) Philralph 08:56, 8 Jul 2005 (UTC)